Truth & Possibilities
by Appomattoxco
Summary: The summer after Buffy dies, Giles and Anya find out more about Dawn and the Key and it changes everything.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Truth & Possibilities1?

Author: Appomattoxco

Rating: FRT violence and some strong language

Pairings: It will be Giles/Anya with Spike and Dawn friendships.

Summary: Very AU Post the episode "The Gift" The summer after Buffy dies, Giles and Anya find out more about Dawn and the Key.

A/N: This story is dedicated to LJS and Zanthinegirl. It's beta by the wonderful JaneDavitt and Agilebrit is as usual an invaluable sounding board.

Anya had lain awake all night. Her mind had been too busy turning over possibilities she could only guess at now to sleep. What her life would be like if she hadn't pursued Xander, for instance. When they first got together, she'd wanted sex and friendship. She'd never earned the title of best friend, and lately they were trying too hard when they made love. How long before they stopped trying? Maybe things would've stayed all right between them if she hadn't gotten involved with his friends. When they weren't arguing over announcing their engagement, they were fighting about their friends. Xander didn't understand why she was worried about Giles or why Willow was making her nervous. According to Xander, Giles could take care of himself, and Willow could take care of Dawn and everything else. She rolled over. It was three in the morning. This wasn't the first night that the alarm clock by the bed looked like that big ol' relationship time bomb she'd once asked for.

It was a non-event when she did it. All those years as vengeance demon and she didn't realize that it ever happened this way -sad and quiet. She set the ring box down on the table next to his cornflakes. "You don't want me to keep this."

Xander sighed; it sounded like half sadness and half relief, "No, I can't marry you. I hate this, I hate giving up." He pushed away the cereal as if that was what he disliked. "I didn't lie to you. I thought it felt right but nothing at all feels right, now. Maybe we could move? Joe offered me that job in L.A.. If we got away from the Hellmouth?"

"It's not about the Hellmouth, though, is it? If we left now, we'd both feel guilty. It wouldn't fix things; it'd make them worse."

"Look, why don't you keep the ring- exchange it for a necklace or something. I'll just shut up now, because whatever I say is bound to be stupid, and get me turned into a toad like I deserve."

"I don't feel very scorned. Do you?" Anya asked. She was the one who'd given the ring back, after all.

Xander said, "No, just sad, I wi… No."

"Be careful today at work." Anya said, picking up the box because it seemed hurtful not to.

"You too... You be careful." There was more honest affection in that goodbye than either had heard since right after Buffy's death.

Just as she was about to go out the door, she got a call from an old friend asking for a lunch date. It wasn't a conventional phone call and the warning to be careful felt a little ominous now.

888

Anya studied Giles. At least she wasn't alone in her sadness. Grief was aging his handsome face so much that she just wanted to grab hold of him and tell him to cry and water it before it dried up completely. Sorrow made him seem like a stranger, and the shop had a foreign feel because of it. Giles worked and patrolled looking more like a robot than the fake Buffy, and he avoided Dawn as much as he could. Anya wasn't sure if that was because he blamed Dawn for her sister's death or because he blamed himself for the girl being orphaned. Anya would've asked him about it, but he might have given her that angry look that made her knees weak or finally given into his grief so that she would have had to comfort him. Both of those possibilities were too much, too soon. Instead of saying anything, she played with the ring box in her pocket and looked at the clock.

"You look tired; does your arm ache?" Giles asked.

Anya quickly took her hand out of her pocket to prove it hadn't been hurt on patrol the other night and the box fell out, landing with a soft thud and spilling the ring on to the floor. Just for a moment there was a naked look of pain on his face. He picked it up, snapped the box closed, and handed it to her. "We're slow on Mondays; Go on your lunch date, then take the rest of the day off."

All those times Giles had turned away and cleaned his glasses when she'd kissed Xander held new meaning. "It's not the way you think."

Giles said, "I'm not the clueless old man you think. You've been carrying that thing in your pocket for days. You were fiddling with it when you tripped on patrol last night. I don't think it's the way you think it is. If it were the ring it wouldn't be in the box."

Anya had been alive for over 1100 years and she'd seen and done a lot. Some of it stupid, because that's how the law of averages works. There was a lot she wanted to say to Giles, but all that came out of her mouth was, "I gave the ring back, but Xander told me to keep it. I don't want to take the day off." She wanted to add, I'm sad because my heart isn't broken.

Just then, four teenagers in Goth gear came in. Giles said, "Why don't you do something useful, then. Clean up under the checkout counter, Anya."

"Do you really mean it?" Under the counter was a huge mess, and Anya had been itching to organize it forever. It seemed everything there was no place for ended up there, but Giles always insisted he had a system.

"The pit, as you call it, needs to be put in order, doesn't it?" He sounded dismissive, as if he no longer cared about his system and was ready for something new. Walking away from her he picked up a rag and started to dust, humming quietly.

She said, "Well, stop cleaning the already spotless jars of toad tongue, and help me decide what to throw away."

"You don't need my help for that. You're perfectly capable of deciding what to toss in the bin, you just said so."

"That doesn't mean I want to do all the work by myself. I might want a partner someday." If he could talk in code, so could she.

Lunch time came without giving them a chance to speak alone. Anya didn't want to spend the time with Halfrek but she knew Hallie would just keep on pestering her. When she said she would hurry back, Giles said there was no rush, to take her time and get her head together. And if she wanted to go shopping, he'd be here. Anya really didn't want to window shop; she had her own store, after all.

888

When she got to the Espresso Pump, Anya tried to project an air of being pleased with the world in general. An hour ago it would've been a lot harder. This morning, she had put on a bright yellow retro sundress to boost her confidence. She didn't know what Halfrek wanted, but there were problems, and Hallie could only make them worse. Anya had a non-engagement ring in her pocket. The Hellmouth didn't have a Slayer and a robot was doing the job. The more Willow used magic to help on patrol the spookier she got and just about everyone was having nightmares. Giles was a bright spot, but it was a very new and tentative one.

Anya went over in her head the way she would get a wish from a woman in the old days and decided on simple yes or no answers. Direct eye contact and no use of the 'w' word. Just like a witness on Law & Order. She always tried her best to see the possibilities, but live with what was true. It was a holdover from her past life; the dimensional travelers' version of living in the now, but this called for fabrication. The least unpleasant result of Halfrek finding out just how far from the best possible world she was in would be gloating.

"Hallie!" Anya got up from the table to hug her old friend, but Halfrek sat before she had a chance. "What are you doing in town? You look… famous?" Anya said, because it was the only nice thing she could think of to say. Her normally elegant friend was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with dark glasses and a ball cap. She looked like a star trying to avoid the paparazzi and succeeding in only being obvious.

Halfrek pulled her baseball cap lower. "Not so loud, Anya. This is an unauthorized teleport, I don't have long."

Hallie had Anya's attention now; breaking rules like that got people dead. Anya should've remembered the other axiom; the past always comes back angry. "You came here without D'Hoffryn's permission? What's so important?" Anya asked.

"I don't work for him anymore, but that's not important. You do still work for the Watcher, right?" Anya nodded, suddenly afraid for Giles, and Halfrek continued, "Don't let him leave town. If he does go, go with him. Stick close to Rupert Giles and his family; the Hellmouth gets very unpleasant without him."

Anya tried to sound cool and unconcerned. "The Hellmouth is always unpleasant; don't tell me you suddenly care about that."

"No offence, sweetie, but I really don't, or I wouldn't if your fate weren't all tangled up with mine."

"I don't think you understand the situation. Giles is my employer; he tells me what to do, not the other way around. Besides, he wants to go back to England, and Buffy wants him to go back," Anya hated to lie but even if Hallie had the purest motives in the world, mentioning the Slayer seemed like a good idea. Hallie was a terrible gossip, besides it wasn't too far from the truth; Willow and Xander had been hinting Giles should go home. "I don't get much of a vote. And, besides, I doubt saying that a vengeance demon told me he needed to stay would matter much to Giles."

"Then maybe you should think about changing the relationship. Don't look so shocked, I've seen lots of possibilities, and the only good ones for either of us are tied to the Watcher and you. Stick with him and his kin, and we won't end up dead. See the possibilities and live the truth," Halfrek said, and was gone before Anya could complain that she didn't think Giles had any family.

When she returned, Anya was worried. On the surface it seemed as if fate were bringing her and Giles together. Her friend had told her that it would be a good thing, but Anya would've been more optimistic without the encouragement; Halfrek was her friend but she had never been a trusted friend. She started tossing out old catalogs, grateful and annoyed that Giles seemed to be just as contemplative. Beneath a free calendar and some flyers from the chamber of commerce there was a heavy, padded envelope dated a month ago that had never been opened. It was addressed to Giles and marked 'Private' with a red stamp. It had an English postmark so it was probably a gift from some relative that Giles had chosen to ignore. Xander always said it was best to ignore your relatives, but it had her curious. It could be something important that had been pushed aside in the aftermath of death and then swallowed by junk mail. Besides, this could be a way to recapture the earlier banter.

"See! I do need your help. I can't even open this to decide what to do with it." Not seeing where things might lead with Giles just because in case it benefited a friend who might be evil was silly.

Giles looked at the return address and his smile slipped. "Just toss it."

"But you haven't even opened it yet! How do you know you don't need whatever it is?" For just a moment, Anya wondered if this meant he thought they were a bad idea.

"I know what it is, Anya; it's too little and too late."

"Oh… It's information on Glory," It wasn't a question; Anya could tell by the flat look on Giles' face she was right. It made her happy and sad at the same time.

"Hobson had information on the Key, but it's of no importance now."

"Maybe it is. I mean, just because there's no lock anymore doesn't mean that it's not important to know. Dawn might have questions." Anya thought that this could be the way to get Giles to face Dawn. Even with the others always fawning over her Anya had caught a look of pain on Dawn's face when Giles avoided her.

"What good would knowing how Dawn was made do? It's better just to let it lie, to believe the fiction now that the danger's over."

"It's your job to know the truth."

Giles stood closer. His eyes didn't look flat or distant anymore and the skin on Anya's arms took on the texture of orange peel. "I quit. If you want to open the damn thing go ahead," he said.

"I can't; it's addressed to you. It would be a federal offence."

"Oh, for God's sake!" Giles said, snatching it from her hand. When he took the envelope and removed the leather bound book inside, years of training took over, though, and he opened the book carefully. He settled at the research table and Anya went to make him tea, even though it wasn't her job. When she returned to the task of cleaning she felt a little more at ease.

Anya had finished cleaning and was reminding a costumer to return soon with more money when Giles stood up. He looked very pale and when he took off his glasses he dropped them without noticing that they slid off the table to the floor. This seemed worse to her than the 'Dear Lord!' of impending doom. She hurried over to him, stepping on his glasses in the process.

"Darn, I'm sorry! Are you all right, Giles? What's happened?"

"You've smashed my glasses."

"I know that, Giles. Sit down, I think you might be in some kind of shock. What in the world was in that book?"

"Buffy was convinced Dawn was made of her, but the first Slayer was created using the Key. It was the mystical similarities between them that closed the rift when Buffy… jumped."

"That makes sense; Dawn looks much more like a half-sister than a clone."

"Perceptive, as usual," Giles muttered.

"I don't get it, why would you be so upset over this? The monks didn't screw up and use Graclore DNA did they? I always thought Dawn's screech was inhuman- Oh, God, now we have to incinerate her, after all this trouble we went to keeping her alive! I think she actually likes me, Giles, I don't think I can do it," Anya said, close to tears.

"Dawn isn't a Graclore, and she's no danger to anyone. I was right; it's best if we leave this be. It's better for everyone to go on as if the monks' fiction were true. It's close enough to it."

"No, Giles, tell me who I am," Dawn said. She was standing by the back door of the shop looking like her sister did before a battle.

Giles slowly walked over to Dawn. "You're Buffy's sister, and Joyce's daughter, as well as the Key: the source of the Slayer," he answered, in a low gentle voice that attempted to soothe. When he took hold of her hands Dawn folded them across her chest defiantly.

"That's where I came in. Tell me the punch line to the cosmic joke that's my life. What got you so afraid?"

Giles said gravely, "Dawn, I am your father."

Anya and Dawn burst out laughing. "Giles, I don't think Dawn really wanted you to tell a joke," Anya said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.

"He doesn't look like he's joking, Anya."

"Well, he's English, they never do," Anya said.

"I know this is a lot to take in, and I suppose we can do a blood test to be sure. It took years to construct the spell and all those false memories. The monks needed actual- They took a fetus from your mother in 1998. It was shortly after..."

"Ick, after you had 'chocolate' with mom? I'm going to need therapy! I came downstairs that night and saw you guys on the sofa --"

"You saw us kissing and ran back upstairs," Giles said dryly. "I hardly think you're scarred for life."

Anya said, "You had me very scared when you found out, Giles; you've looked less traumatized over the end of the world." There was a voice in Anya's head that sounded a lot like Xander, or possibly Willow, telling her that was the wrong thing to say. She always wondered why those damn voices always waited until afterwards to speak up.

"It's all right, the guy with a head full of stuff like teaching me to ride a bike doesn't call or leave a note with the child support, and I'm okay. We can just forget it, I mean it -- I know you think it's my fault, what happened, and it was. So just do what you want; get rid of the book."

The brittle sound of Dawn's voice made the hair on the back of Anya's neck prickle. If she were still in the business her veins would be humming. Dawn was rejected and heartbroken. Hopefully Halfrek wasn't still lurking around.

Giles reached up for his glasses, before recalling that they were broken, then tried to comfort Dawn. "Your sister's death was inevitable; I don't blame you for it."

"Then why were you so un-thrilled that you just wanted to forget about me?"

"I know that your sister and the others have seen me as a parental figure of sorts, but I'm not fit for it. I never believed I was meant to have family. You have someone you remember as your father, and my first thought was that it was better to leave it that way."

"What was your second thought?" Dawn asked hoarsely.

Anya said, "His second thought was, 'Wow! I have an intelligent and beautiful daughter and I never once had to change a diaper.' Isn't that right, Giles?"

"That's very close to what I'm thinking right now," he said, almost to himself, studying Dawn's face. "I can see Joyce in your eyes, and my mother in the shape of your smile."

The way Giles said this made the back of Anya's eyes prickle; like watching a Lifetime movie at that time of the month. Dawn must've heard it, too, because she made a little sobbing sound and threw herself into Giles' arms.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Truth & Possibilities 2?

Author: Appomattoxco

Rating: FRT violence and some strong language

Pairings: It will be Giles/Anya with Spike and Dawn friendships.

Summary: Very AU Post the episode "The Gift" The summer after Buffy dies, Giles and Anya find out more about Dawn and the Key.

A/N: This story is dedicated to LJS and Zanthinegirl. It's beta by the wonderful JaneDavitt and Agilebrit is as usual an invaluable sounding board. chapter 1 here

The blood test removed any doubt that that Dawn was his, but for now she chose to stay in her home with Willow and Tara. For Giles, it was the context of his life and not the actual content of it that had changed. He still patrolled and worked in the shop. He still watched for Anya's smiles during the day, and dreamed of her at night when the nightmares let him be. The difference was that now, because she had left Xander, he could coax those smiles from Anya. Giles still looked for Buffy sometimes when he came to see Dawn. It wasn't as difficult as he thought it would be. Dawn didn't wish to call him dad, but it was clear she needed him to be her father. He'd discovered it was more of a gift than a burden.

Dawn's paternity was taken in stride it in the same way they accepted Dawn's mystical origin. He thought that it might be a lingering part of the monks' spell as they all, including him, seemed to be taking the news remarkably calmly, much more calmly than the news that Giles was dating Anya. When Willow and Dawn interrupted him giving Anya an innocent kiss the girls had acted betrayed on Xander's behalf. By that time Xander had given his three weeks' notice at work and had told everyone that he planned to move to L.A. so Anya was getting a cold shoulder from both girls for chasing Xander away. It was Anya's usual frankness that convinced Dawn that wasn't the case.

She'd said, "If I had dumped Xander for Giles I would just say so. Instead I'm admitting that I was too dumb to see Xander and we didn't really love one another. It makes me look stupid on many levels, so don't blame your dad."

It occurred to Giles that Dawn was behaving more maturely than Willow was about this. Maybe even with more grace than Buffy would have.

Giles also had to give Xander credit for not acting like the injured party, and for continuing to help out until he moved. It was an awkward situation, but it could have been much worse.

As he waited to pick up the pizza for everyone one night, he supposed bearing some teasing over taking over the snack detail, too, and a few more awkward evenings were the least he could do.

When he and Anya stepped out of the car he knew she could tell that something was wrong too. Something in the air was making him tense. Xander met them at the door, but completely ignored the pizza Giles was carrying. "It's about time you got here. Willow and Tara left to see a movie. I was about to leave Dawn with Spike and go get you. We have trouble upstairs."

"Dawn!" It wasn't a question, and some detached part of his brain noted that although the trouble could be anyone or anything, somehow he had begun to think like a parent.

Xander nodded and said, "Spike says it's magic but I don't know for sure. Dawn was hearing voices and the phone ringing. Willow said that Dawn's been having nightmares. Now Dawn's up in her room crying. Asking for her mom and dad --I'm not sure if she's even asking for you or Hank. I think this might be some sort of breakdown, either mental, or the spell's giving up."

There was a crackle of magic in the air around the door to Dawn's room. It wasn't anything that most people would feel, but Spike was right; this was mystical. Dawn was sitting on the edge of her bed hugging the plush hedgehog Giles had given her just yesterday. He'd bought the ridiculous thing as a joke; he'd thought her too old for that sort of thing. She looked like a child right now, though, a very ill child. She was trembling, and her face looked flushed with fever. Spike was sitting with her, clearly not comfortable getting too near the energies around her, but wanting to protect her.

Anya went to sit beside her in much the same way as Spike. "Dawn, your dad is here. He'll figure it out." Giles rushed to her bedside when Dawn tried to get up and couldn't. He didn't even bother to kick things aside. If the CD were that important to Dawn it wouldn't be on the floor.

When Dawn looked at him her tear-filled eyes had a ring of glowing green light around the irises. "My head hurts really bad. I'm not going to die like Mom did, am I?"

"No, Dawn, it isn't like that. This is something I can fix. We'll figure it out, I promise."

"I feel kind of sick, too. Maybe it's something simple. Can tea go bad? Willow fixed me some, and it tasted awfu,l but she said it would help me sleep, and I wanted to practice."

"I should've bloody guessed," Spike said, echoing Giles' own thoughts.

"It's not like that!" Xander said. "Willow told me about it when I tried to drink the stuff the other night. Dawn has been having nightmares. She just made a potion to get rid of them."

"Xander, go downstairs and call Willow. Find out exactly what was in that tea," Giles ordered, trying to keep the fear and anger out of his voice. "How long has this been going on, Dawn?"

"About a week? No, two? The first time was way before…. I'm sorry, Willow didn't tell me it was magic. I just thought it was herb tea." Dawn's eyes were glowing even brighter now, and she sounded weak and confused, "I just wanted to practice."

Giles said, "It probably was herbs, they are used in magic. Don't worry, we'll find a counteragent, and when you've had a night or two of natural sleep you'll be fine."

"I don't think so," she whispered. "Hold on to me, I think I'm flying apart."

The room was suddenly engulfed in a green light and they were sucked through a vortex. When Xander returned, Dawn's bed was gone and the room was empty. If it weren't for the perfect circle scorched into the carpet, the four missing Scoobies might've enchanted the bed and taken off for a happy reenactment of a Disney movie.

888

Giles came to on the edge of a ravine with Dawn, Anya and Spike nearby. They had parted ways with the bed somewhere along the line. There were cactus-like plants growing up in the sandy earth between the rocks where they landed, so everyone was scraped and bruised. Even the sky looked abused by the ground. It had that red color that anyone who'd ever seen an episode of the original Star Trek would have recognized.

"Is everyone all right? What happened?" Dawn asked.

"It looks like you got your Key on and beamed us to another dimension, Bit," Spike said. "But at least the red sky doesn't seem to burn yours truly and your eyes aren't glowing anymore."

"Do you feel any better?" Giles asked.

Dawn said, "Yeah, a little bit."

"That might not be such a good thing," Anya pointed out. "Glowing eyes got us here; we might need them to go home."

"Just great! I don't care if it is my cultural heritage, once we get home I'm never drinking tea again," Dawn said.

"Is that what you meant when you said you wanted to practice? You drank the yucky tea Willow gave you to be like Giles?" Anya asked.

"Yeah," Dawn said kicking a stone. "That, and I wanted to stop waking up screaming."

"You could've just took up football," Spike said, and looked to the hills, then ran off saying, "I can hear someone crying."

They caught up with Spike and found what was left of Dawn's bed at the base of a tall rock formation. When it fell from the sky it had apparently knocked two climbers off the rock to land on the desert floor. A middle-aged human man with his neck broken and a boy about three or four years old.

"Hey, now," Spike said to the boy in the sort of voice he might've once used to calm Drusilla or catch prey. "Are you hurt? Can you tell me where your mum is?"

"Nothing can hurt me," he said, as if stating the sky was blue, or in this case, red. "Father told me mother is in hell where monsters and whores belong."

Giles wasn't sure if he was more shocked by the matter-of-fact statement or by Spike's plainly horrified expression.

"Oh, God, Oh, God!" Dawn sobbed. She was focused on the body of the man and hadn't noticed the boy at all. The air around them went from red to a green color that was in no way festive. "I've killed somebody."

"Dawn, listen to me," Giles said. "This was not your fault; if anyone is responsible it's Willow. Or, if you like, you can blame me for trusting someone so irresponsible with your care, but right now you need to calm down." It was a futile attempt and Giles knew it. Telling somebody to calm down never worked, and often had the opposite effect, but what else could he do. At least Dawn's upset meant that they were again huddled around her when the vortex appeared.


	3. Chapter 3

Dawn's first thought was that at least the landing was softer this time, and she really didn't want to move. The grass was bright green and the blades were fuzzy like mom's African violets. It was warm and soft here and it smelled good too, but everyone was yelling at her to get up for some reason. Pretending to be unconscious sounded like a good plan to her. It would be nice not to have to get up and face reality.

Anya said, "Dawn, I know you must be very tired but you can't sleep here. I think we could be in Ghrub Reet, this is just the sort of place to have bunnies!"

A very young voice asked what a bunny was. He sounded pretty calm now for a kid who'd just seen his father killed by a bed and then been kidnapped by a green glow. Anya started to explain the horror of bunnies but Giles must've given her a kiss or one of his scary looks because she sort of huffed to a stop. Probably a kiss; Anya wasn't scared of his evil eye. It was still weird that they kissed so much. Not that they groped each other all the time but that they felt that way at all. She'd been so mad at them both; Xander was like her big brother and now he was moving away. When she found out and blew up at them Anya had looked so sad and Giles had seemed so resigned. Dawn just didn't have the heart to be angry at losing Xander. She just couldn't join Willow's 'I hate Giles and Anya party' it would only mean more grief, and she was up to her eyeballs in that already. Dawn felt like she was starting to drift off again for real. Maybe they would all just forget about her and let her sleep.

Spike said, "I don't see any rabbits, but look over there; pastel colored bison!" That was enough to get Dawn up. Looking around her, she saw woods filled with velvety grass and bright flowers and weird trees but there wasn't a bison in sight. Spike said, "Faker." Dawn smacked him on the arm.

Giles said, "If Anya is right, the natives are relatively peaceful, wherever they are, but there could be some dangerous animals. Do you think you can walk, Dawn?"

"Do we want to go to the cooking fires?" the kid asked after sniffing the air like a vampire. Dawn couldn't smell a thing, but Spike and the creepy preschooler both said there was a village or camp near by.

Dawn asked, "How do you know it's not just a forest fire or something?" The sleeping might've been a little fake, but the shakes weren't, and Dawn walked leaning on Giles and Spike for a few steps.

"I can smell bread and something like onions and cabbage; not my idea of a feast. It either means the folk are vegetarians or they're very bad hunters," Spike said, "You lot might not be on the menu if you drop in for dinner."

"There isn't meat," the boy agreed after another freaky sniff.

Dawn noticed Giles trying to decide if the kid was something that was going to eat them all in their sleep. That was good, better than him thinking the kid was cute. She knew that it was her own fault that sniffy boy had gotten dragged into this, but she wouldn't want to be tossed over for a younger model so soon. Maybe she should start calling Giles 'dad'-- it might be worth the weirdness.

"We need to go faster. Going slow gets you eaten," the creepy kid urged. Dawn felt really guilty over the fact that her bed killed somebody right in front of him, but the kid's attitude was wigging her a little.

"So, do you have a real name, or will we just be calling you Pugsley?" Spike asked, as if he wouldn't be calling the kid 'Pugsley' from now on anyway. It fit and was funny but now she'd have the darn The Addam's Family song stuck in her head.

"I'm Stephen," the boy said, which started introductions all around.

"We should sing." Anya said. "If there are bunnies around they will hear us and hop away before we arrive. Otherwise, we could startle one unexpectedly and give it an excuse to attack." Dawn wasn't surprised to see everyone but Stephen mentally replace 'bunny' with 'bear', or 'bear-like thing.' She wasn't even surprised that Giles was the first to see it was a good idea and sing. What surprised her was that he knew some of the words to The Addam's Family theme song.

Dawn saw plenty of creatures crawl or fly out of their way as they walked along singing the whole TV land songbook. All of the feathered or scaly things looked more SciFi than Animal Planet but there wasn't anything big or threatening. For the most part, she stumbled along too tired to care.

She had begun to wish that she was small enough to be carried when she heard the hoof beats. There were five demons with way too much skin riding big shaggy horses. The biggest one pointed a spear at Giles and asked, "Did you fall from the hole in the sky?"

Giles said yes, and Dawn could tell he was thinking the same as she was; that they were dead meat. All the books Dawn had read had said this was where the natives put up a stake to roast them all on. Oh, there might be a brief period where they were first worshiped as gods, but that never lasted long. Maybe they'd let her sleep a little first. Maybe she'd freak again and open another portal. Dawn imagined dragging the five demons and their horses, too, this time. She envisioned herself going from one dimension to the next. Picking up new beings at every stop. She almost could hear Giles sing about it to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

Dawn tried hard to focus on what was going on. Another demon pointed a spear at her and bared his teeth. Her ears were starting to ring again so she was sure she misunderstood when the demon said in a concerned voice, "Do you need a place to crash? No pun intended, you know, but the one with the shiny hair looks sick. "

Then everything got blurry and before she passed out Dawn said, "Well, at least there's no green."

Dawn was trapped; it was as if that potion Willow had given her hadn't gotten rid of the nightmares, but had locked them in a closet. Now, Dawn was in there with them, and they were really pissed off. Every monster real or imagined reached out to grab her. Her mother's corpse insisted she wasn't real, and her sister called her a murder. Dawn would wake up now and then. Giles or Spike would be there making her drink from a straw that was really straw, a few times Anya was washing her like Dawn had a bad fever. She kept slipping back.

The nightmare became a dream when she followed the cat that turned into a cougar. It led her into the desert and as they walked velvety grass grew and the sun softened. Tara appeared beside the cat. "You've made yourself a soft, green bed, rest for a while."

"But don't I need to find the others and go home?" Dawn asked, but she did as she was told.

Tara said, "Don't worry, you'll get your sister back one way or the other."

"That wasn't what I asked."

"Some dreams tell you what to ask. Knowing the question is half the battle," Tara said, and vanished with the cat.

Dawn wasn't alone for long; Giles, Anya, Spike and Stephen came to lie down next to her. Spike said, "Look, that one's a bunny rabbit," and pointed up. Something was wrong with the sky; it looked like the pages of a story book.

Giles said, "Shut up, Spike, you're just trying to scare everyone. Besides, it's clearly a cat; the story is all about cats."

Anya said, "You're both wrong; it's a bunny effigy. See, it's made of fabric and not a real bunny. You're both reading Alice, but that's not the true story."

"I've lived the real story. I tried to play the skin-horse and no one listened," Giles said.

Dawn asked, "Is the skin-horse like the drums? I'd listen, honest."

"I know you would, but I'd rather read Alice. I will protect you from the rabbit, dear." Giles said to Anya.

Anya said, "We'll protect each other."

"I've read that bunny story!" Stephen interrupted, sounding pleased with himself. "Doesn't it end in conflagration?"

"Think I'll pass on the fiery death, and Alice is a right nice girl. I say that it's a cat," Spike said.

Dawn was confused. "I thought it was reading Oz; am I completely lost? How do I get us all home?"

Anya said, "Well, there's a good witch and a bad one; the metaphor gets a little stretched because Oz is gone. I doubt clicking your heels will do any good. You need to focus. Maybe you should try a crystal? Did I ever tell you about the time I met L Frank Baum's mother-in-law?"

The first thing she noticed was her father's worried face. She wanted to ask where she was. It wasn't her room or a hospital room so she knew she hadn't done a complete Dorothy. Her throat felt like a something furry had rolled in sand then crawled inside it to die. All she managed say was "Da-"

Giles held a drink up for her. "Dawn, stay with me this time, it's time to wake up."


	4. Chapter 4

"Get back here, you slimy demon spawn!" Spike yelled.

"No! I hate you," Stephen shouted back, running naked and wet down the path to the woods. "You're a monster!" He tripped over a root growing in the path and lay there howling.

Spike ignored the screams, scooped the squirming child up under his arm, and headed back to the camp. "Yeah, so, I'm the big-bad," he said with a sarcastic growl. "It's going strike fear in the hearts of the folks back on the Hellmouth when they find out I torture tots with soap and water. Hair washing tops anything Angelus ever dreamed of."

When they first arrived, Spike had been determined to stick close to Dawn's side and protect her as he'd promised Buffy he would. Then Rupert and Anya convinced him were doing all that could be done for the Bit. And somebody had to watch out Pugsley didn't piss-off or just plain off the locals. It was lowering, but he thought it was what Buffy would want him to do; make sure the Watcher was free to watch over Dawn. Besides, it wasn't like Giles or Anya could keep up with the boy. Stephen had a heartbeat and a soul but he was vamp strong for his size and a fast little bugger. Nobody knew what he was; they hadn't had the time or means for a research party. All they could glean from Stephen was that his real parents had been monsters and that his 'father' had saved him.

Spike dumped a pitcher of water over Stephen's head and smiled evilly as the boy sputtered. To be truthful, playing nursemaid wasn't so bad. He didn't have anything better to do. His friend Clem hadn't been lying when he'd told Spike that home was a nice place to visit. Clem called it 'the world without snacks.' Clem's people might've been mighty warriors once but now they were farmers. They lived in tents made of spider silk and grew vegetables. He would've loved this place when he was human. At least, he would've liked to picnic here, then return to civilization . The only things to kill were the small creatures he hunted for blood. Spike would have been incredibly bored if he weren't so worried about Dawn and busy riding herd on Pugsley.

"There you go," Spike said when Stephen was dried and dressed again. "Better not to smell like demon-skunkweed isn't it, Pugs?" He'd been too slow getting to Stephen this morning. He'd already rolled in boggy mud by the time Spike found him. At least Spike had thought to leave his duster behind before picking him up. Stephen had cheerfully explained that he didn't want the rabbits to smell that he was a boy.

"Maybe. Are we going to see Dawn, Spike?" Stephen was fascinated by Dawn for some reason. Spike thought maybe Stephen could sense her mystical nature in some way, and he was anxious as Spike was for her to wake up.

"And Giles 'n' Anya. Don't we always visit after lunch?" Spike said.

"When I grow up will I get big teeth, too?" Stephen changed the subject the way he would chase a new scent on the air.

"Could be," Spike said, because he honestly didn't know. "Do you want to?" With Stephen it was hard to tell. He prided himself on being strong, but his father had made him hate monsters. Even if Spike knew what to do with kids it would be hard to say what to do with Stephen. Nobody even knew how old he was. He looked about four, but acted far older at times.

Stephen said, "Don't want to be a monster."

Spike had no clue what he should say to this. That being whatever he was, wasn't bad? That some of his best friends were monsters? What would Joyce say to him if she were here or Spike's own mum? Buffy would reassure the boy he had a soul. "Then you won't be. You can be whatever you want to."

Stephen smiled. "Because I'm strong, Dawn's strong now, right?"

"Yeah." He hoped that Dawn was strong. Something in Willow's potion had combined with sleep deprivation to trigger Dawn's innate abilities as the Key .The physical and mystical exhaustion after that had had her drifting in and out of an unnatural sleep for over a week. Giles said she was getting better now, but Dawn was still asleep more than she was awake, and Spike was concerned she'd never wake up. "Dawn's strong, and you smelled that way earlier anyway," Spike said to hide his mood.

He grabbed Stephen by the ankles and hung him upside down for a moment before he took the giggling boy towards the tent with their fellow travelers. The local people had let them stay in a tent outside the camp. No one blamed the folks for worrying that the girl who slept might have something catching.

"Spike!" Dawn's voice sounded like it had ten years of rust on it, but her eyes were clear.

"Why didn't anyone tell me she was awake?" he asked, angry and hurt.

Anya said, "We didn't have the chance; she just came to."

"Hey! She's right here, guys, and she's starving. Can a girl get anything to eat in this place? I remember getting all the ice cream I wanted after I got my tonsils out."

"You can have all the vegetable soup you'd like. The menu here is limited, I'm afraid. They don't even have ice," Giles said.

"They have cheese made of mare's milk," Anya offered.

Stephen made a face over that. "It's bloody disgusting!"

Giles said, "I have to agree with that description, if not the language. I'll see what I can find." The Watcher had only given him a token glare over corrupting Pugsley. It looked to Spike as if Giles could use a drink. Followed by a good night's sleep of his own. "All of you keep Dawn entertained until I get back."

Giles hurried out and Anya stared after him with a worried frown. "I'll be right back, guys."

"Well, that was a warm welcome. Is she after some kissage?" Dawn asked, sounding a little put out over this.

Spike said, "Don't worry, they won't forget to feed you. Expect now that the crisis is over Rupert wants a moment to fall apart. Anya wants to be there, make sure he doesn't mislay the pieces."

"Oh. I'm really sorry I worried you guys, and you know, sent us all here."

"Not your fault, Pidge. Think Willow might need to be worried when we get back though." Spike put the emphasis on 'when' to reassure Dawn.

Dawn asked, "Are you going to bite her for me?"

"It'd be worth the pain," Spike said. Privately, he didn't think that Rupert would leave enough for him to get his teeth on.

"Did you know the tents here are made of spiders' web? And sometimes they even eat the spiders here? They taste better than the furry things Spike catches to eat. The furry things have six legs and taste like the tar- beetles back home, but they aren't bugs." Stephen said, clearly feeling he'd been left out of things too long.

Dawn rolled her eyes in a Buffy-like fashion. "Thanks, kid, I have the creeps so bad now I'm totally and completely awake."

Stephen stood a little taller and smiled brightly. "You're welcome."

"Remind me to have a chat with you 'bout how to impress the birds later, Pugs."

"Yeah, as soon as you figure it out yourself," Dawn teased.

Spike was searching for a way to refute this when Anya and Giles returned with bowls of fruit and bread. As he expected, Rupert looked a lot steadier now. They were good for each other; there was a balance to them that Spike hadn't seen in many couples. Of course, being a vampire he'd known for a while the way the wind blew. The only surprise was that Anya saw sense and hadn't stuck it out with Xander anyway. Most humans wouldn't understand it, but it took a lot for a demon to make a real commitment at all. Once they had it was forever and Anya still had a demon heart.

All in all it was a terrible place, here. He had to play nurse maid. No booze, or smokes, and even the fresh-caught food tasted terrible. You'd think a place with marshes and campfires would naturally discover the marshmallow, as well.

But the company could be worse.


	5. Chapter 5

The camp was a village with very thin walls and little privacy. People talked and shouted to one another and the sound of pets and livestock was everywhere. And beneath it all was the crackle of the fires, with the thump-brush of the looms like a heartbeat. It was as loud in its own way as London or L.A. but until now, Giles had been so focused on Dawn that everything outside their tent had become white noise.

Right now, most of the noise came from the football match that Spike had organized as Stephen had more energy than he could burn hunting. Spike becoming a soccer dad was surreal, but at least Stephen had stopped fighting with the locals.

"Good job, Pugs!" Spike called out, sounding and looking like any sports dad. The vampire's nose was pink from the sun and Giles couldn't remember when Spike had last worn his coat. "I suppose now that the Niblet is doing better you'll want to take over with Pugs, Rupes?" Spike said, looking over to the side of the field where Dawn was fussing over some puppies. "And I'll be free of the ankle biter at last."

"You seem to be doing all right with him. He's not as morose as he was just a few weeks ago. I suppose it's not much different for you than training a fledgling."

"Not anything at all like that!" Insult was written clearly on Spike's face. "The boy's got a soul and a good heart. I'm missing both and I can see it. Stephen's screwed up enough already because that guy who had him treated him like a demon."

"So you treat him like a human?" Giles asked. He was embarrassed at the way he'd unwittingly insulted Spike but didn't think an apology would do any good.

"Kid has power; can't treat him that way. He's got to learn to use it, yeah. So I treat him like a mini-Slayer."

Giles blinked as he considered that. "That's actually… very wise of you."

Spike smiled smugly. "Proves we've dropped down the rabbit hole, don't it?"

"Don't tell Anya that!"

"Wouldn't dare. You know, if you ever need advice about Dawn you can come to me," Spike said in an exaggeratedly fraternal tone, then headed over to the other side of the field to yell at Stephen up close.

Spike's comment about Stephen needing to learn to use his power got Giles thinking about Dawn. Some of the skills he had as a Watcher might help her to use her abilities as the Key to get them home. He didn't want to risk it just yet; Dawn was still a bit shaky from her ordeal, but they needed to try something soon. He wondered what was happening in Sunnydale. Were Willow and Tara searching for them or did they think they were dead? How much time had passed there, and were the others able to keep the Hellmouth in check? He feared it had become chaotic; before they left things were already hanging by a thread. Without Spike on patrol, things were bound to go south quickly.

He'd just decided to give up brooding and find out what Anya was up to when she came towards him. She was carrying a jug and a cloth bundle that looked like it held food. She put the picnic things on the ground and sat next to him. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"Now that you've arrived, yes. I was just contemplating fuzzy grass and navel lint. It's a poor substitute for diaries and dusty tomes, but I'm making do." Giles dropped the blade of velvety grass he'd been playing with and took her hand.

"That doesn't sound as bad as you were making it look."

Giles smiled. "Let's see. We've been pulled through a couple of dimensions. I have no idea how or if we'll find a way home. I don't even know if we will have a home to go to if we do find a way back. I seemed to have roped you into doing the most work while Dawn was sick. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to chuck the whole idea of us as couple. Going from somebody who wouldn't make you his top priority, to someone who can't, isn't exactly trading up."

"Have you changed your mind about me? Is that why you're wasting the time we do have together complaining?"

"God, no!"

Anya got up and Giles felt ridiculously abandoned until he realized she wasn't leaving. "Good, then stop being so gloomy and let's go find someplace to have this picnic. I told Dawn we'd be back later. She said she was tired of us hovering over her as if she was a baby panda, anyway. I told her she had an inflated sense of her own cuteness. I'm practicing to be the evil step-whatever."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Giles said. Anya got along with Dawn better than he did some days.

"Maybe I'll just be wicked. I've done the whole evil thing and I hear wicked can be fun."

888

The food was the same stuff they'd been eating for weeks. What Giles savored was the quiet and the sight of Anya in the dappled sunlight.

"You know, what you said about me feeling neglected isn't true. These past few weeks have been pretty awful but you never made me feel unimportant to you. In fact you did the opposite."

"Really?" He felt, not resentful, but regretful himself that Dawn had taken them from home and occupied so much of his time. He could recall a dozen times that Xander had made Anya hurt or furious by putting his friends before her. How could Anya not feel cheated?

"Giles, tell me honestly, how important has Dawn become to you?"

"Truthfully, it wasn't something I expected but she's… precious to me."

Anya said, "That's what I thought. You asked for my help and even took my advice. You entrusted me with somebody precious to you. That's not a burden, it's a gift. Besides," Anya continued, "It was Spike you threatened and manipulated into the real dirty work. Taking care of a sleeping teenage Key is a lot easier than taking care of an active little kid with demonic strength and speed."

Giles laughed and then kissed her. When they stopped for breath the sky was turning pink and he sighed in regret. "I think it's time to go." To his surprise Anya jumped to her feet at once, but she didn't turn towards the camp. Instead, she led him a small tent at the edge of the woods.

"Did you do all this yourself?" he asked.

"Had to, it's traditional around here. You know the saying, when in Ghrub Reet follow local customs, with the exception of eating the spiders."

"I recall hearing something like that." Giles was grinning; he had a pretty good idea of what was going on. He'd seen one of these small blue tents yesterday and had been told about it, but he asked, "What tradition are we following?"

"It's called a honeymoon tent." That did surprise him. He was under the impression they were the silk tent version of a motel room. Giles knew then that the universe wasn't fair. He couldn't recall doing a single thing worth Anya's love. Anya must've seen his surprise as reluctance. She began to talk more quickly. "It's not legally binding until the first spawn and we aren't going to spawn. So the term doesn't have to be taken literally."

Giles was stunned by how brave Anya was with her heart after all that she'd been through. He said softly, "You know I love you and I've developed a great fondness for literal thinking."

"That works out very well. I'm known for being literal," Anya said as she led him inside the tent. It wasn't the combination of luminous blue walls and white cushions that made him feel like he was soaring. It was because he had Anya in his arms.


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Truth & Possibilities 6?

Author: Appomattoxco

Rating: FRT violence and some strong language

Pairings: It will be Giles/Anya with Spike and Dawn friendships.

Summary: Very AU Post the episode "The Gift" The summer after Buffy dies, Giles and Anya find out more about Dawn and the Key.

Disclaimer: I'm only doing this for my own amusement no money has changed hands.

A/N: This story is dedicated to LJS and Zanthinegirl. It's beta by the wonderful JaneDavitt and Agilebrit is as usual an invaluable sounding board.

"Remember, you're the Key; not a brick through a window. Find where you fit," Giles said softly.

The first time he'd said this to her she had laughed, because it sounded so Karate Kid. Now, after a year of training, Dawn just concentrated on the sunlight reflecting off the coin. She saw the small gaps between worlds and the unseen doorways she was made to open. Not in the way Glory wanted to use her, but just one door at a time. Just the door home. She knew where to go, but this was one last test run. Just a peek through the keyhole.

"Call the others and get the crystal. It's time we did this for real," Dawn said when Giles woke her from her trance. She was surprised that her voice sounded so confident; inside she was shaking. Dawn knew she could do this, she just didn't know if she should. There was no way to know what they were coming home to. Anya had said that her friend had warned her it could get bad in Sunnydale without Giles there.

Dawn must not have looked as calm as she thought because when Anya came in she gave Dawn the concerned look she'd been perfecting, "You know, Dawnie, now that you know how to open and shut portals safely, if Sunnydale is uninhabitable for whatever reason we can always head for the world without shrimp or somewhere."

"Thanks, Anya." Dawn gave her a one-armed hug and asked, "So, everyone ready to head home?"

"Yeah, said our goodbyes. Got a letter here to take home to Clem if he's still around, too," Spike said patting the pocket of the duster that looked odd on him now.

Dawn wondered if Clem or Xander and Willow would even believe he was the same Spike that they knew. Vampires didn't age, but he had changed just as much as the rest of them in the past year.

Dawn asked, "Are you sure you don't want to stay here? I mean; you go home and you won't be able to be outside in the sun anymore. You'll have to go back to the shift."

"Turns out I don't tan well anyway. Besides, where you go I go. Long as you're sure you can aim for nighttime or indoors I'm ready for the off," Spike said. His voice was casual, but his eyes met Dawn's and she knew that Spike was dead serious.

"I'm going too, right?" Stephen asked.

Spike sighed in exasperation. "I told you a dozen times already that you're going with us."

Dawn knelt down in front of Stephen and said, "How about you sit on my lap when I open the portal?"

"I'm not a baby. I'll hold your hand and Spike's."

Giles hung the crystal from the ceiling of the tent. At first, Giles sat next to Dawn and took the hand Stephen left free but she had him switch to sit between Spike and Anya so that Dawn could look at Giles. To get home she didn't focus on the crystal; the rock was from here. It couldn't take her elsewhere. Her real focus was the light of the crystal reflected in Giles' eyes. Her dad was from home -- her dad i was /i home. Anya had been the one to help her figure that out, but they had somehow never got around to telling Giles.

She did good; there was no whirlwind or gaping hole this time. There was a flash of light and she wasn't in the tent anymore. They were all sitting exactly as they had been, but now it was nighttime and they were in a rubble filled lot. Dawn saw Spike take one of those vamp breaths to smell the air. He made a growling sound and took off. When Dawn saw what he was after she tried to follow, but Anya and Giles held her and Stephen back. The tower built by Glory's victims looked ready to collapse, all Dawn could do was stand there looking up, and wait for the impossible, wait for Spike bring Buffy down before she jumped again.

Just before the madman's tinker toy collapsed, Spike and Buffy were back on the ground and Dawn ran to them. She couldn't mange to say anything, she just ran to Buffy and hugged her. When she realized that Buffy wasn't returning her hug she stepped back and Giles asked the question that stuck in Dawn's throat like a rock. "Buffy, is that really you?"

"It's her, Rupert. Look at her hands." Spike's voice didn't match the words he was saying. He should have sounded happy, but he didn't. Instead his voice was gravelly and raw. Dawn looked at Buffy's hands. They were all torn up and full of dirt and splinters. Giles gasped like he'd been hit in the stomach. Dawn got really scared. Anya had her arm around him like she thought she needed to hold Giles up, and by the look on his face that could've been true.

Dawn asked, "What's wrong, Buffy? What happened to you?"

"I don't know. I'm back. It hurts." The empty look in her eyes ripped a hole in Dawn's heart.

"Then I'll fix it. I'll make it better," Dawn said, trying to sound like the in control girl who could open portals and gather spider silk without freaking.

"We should go. We should go home. It's not safe out here," Buffy said slowly like she wasn't sure she remembered how to speak.

Dawn should've been happy to be back in the land of indoor plumbing and pizza delivery. She should've been freaking thrilled to have her sister back, but she walked beside her in the dark and missed the sunshine and the silk tents.


	7. Chapter 7

He felt like pond scum for not staying, but it wasn't Willow's first time here, and despite what she'd said tonight, not likely her last. She would find her way home, hyper and sure that next time she'd have Buffy with her. Xander thought is was a lot more likely that one day she wouldn't have Tara there when she came home. Willow came back hyper but Tara was always pale and shaky. Sometimes even bleeding. He couldn't sit and wait in that place. It had enough desperate crazy people to qualify for a Harris family reunion. The only thing missing was Aunt Ruth's Jell-O mold. He'd tried to talk Willow out of doing this. Anyone with a name like Rack, that you needed to hold a vampire at stake-point to find, wasn't apt to be Mister Rogers. Scary thing was that after the first time Willow didn't need anyone to show her the way, even though it was in a different place every time.

Xander considered driving right by Buffy's house and heading for L.A.. Four months ago, he'd been ready to start over somewhere he could pretend that monsters weren't real. He wanted to get away from Anya and Giles, too, because they were so happy it hurt to look at them. It wasn't that it broke his heart, but that it made him feel like a failure. Because Anya in love was a sight to see and he'd never made her look that way. And Giles came close to deserving her. He'd never say it out loud, even if Angel started breaking bones, but he was even a little pissed off at the whole Dawn thing. How come she got the dad everyone wanted? The Bot had broken weeks ago and most of the gang was gone. It was back to him and Willow against the world. Xander wondered if he was the reason they'd all disappeared. Had somebody somewhere heard a wish he didn't remember making? Willow couldn't find them and said they were dead. That Dawn had reverted to pure energy and blew them all up and he was lucky not to be in the room when it happened.

888

He'd been living in Buffy's house with Willow and Tara for two months now. They needed help with the bills and his lease had run out anyway. In his head it was still Buffy's house or Buffy's mom's house. It felt weird to take a beer out of the fridge. He looked around and saw what a mess the kitchen was. Who knew girls could be so sloppy; Spike was better about picking up than Willow, lately. If he didn't do the dishes, Tara would, and she wouldn't be in any shape to tonight. He turned on the radio but the country station was playing something about fatherhood followed by one about church. The music of pain had somehow become the music of hugs and puppies. It felt like a betrayal.

Xander had turned off the radio in disgust and was putting away the last clean coffee mug when they arrived. He shouldn't have been so surprised. After all, it was Sunnydale; dead people at your door were more common than Mormons. He just stepped aside without issuing an invite, more because he couldn't believe it was them than because he thought they'd been turned.

"Xander, are you okay?" Dawn asked.

Dawn. She looked taller and a little curvier, but that was her. They all looked different; Anya's hair was dark brown and chin length. Spike's hair was a lighter brown and he'd cut it short, almost to the point of a crew cut, probably to control the curl. He couldn't be sure if Giles had more gray in his hair or not. It looked like heaven had a decent gym; they all looked in better shape than the last time he'd seen them. It must've not had Gap, though, because they were all wearing rough homemade looking stuff. Spike's duster and boots were the only store bought things visible. He decided to worry about the makeovers later. Right now his heart was doing a happy dance.

"Sweet Witches of Eastwick! My Willow did it! For once a spell of hers went wacky in a good way. She didn't just bring Buffy back, she got you all. Plus some kid I've never seen… but who cares. We can always use more guys." Xander tried to hug Buffy, but she backed away looking frightened and he looked to the others in confusion.

Dawn said, "Willow didn't get us back. I did. We found Buffy at Glory's tower after we got here."

"Your Willow didn't get us back, but it looks like she gets the credit for making Buffy claw her way out of her grave," Spike said. He looked ready to do murder and Xander had to wonder if the bleach and hair gel were all that was missing from Spike's head. If he was chipless he could hurt Willow. It didn't look like anyone here would bother to stop him.

"Where exactly is Willow?" Giles asked. He looked ready to help Spike with the grievous bodily harm.

"She didn't do anything wrong. We needed Buffy. You've been gone for four months; you don't know how bad it's been!" Xander said, even though the idea of Buffy digging her way out like a vampire made him sick Xander had to defend Willow. "Willow did the right thing. She said Buffy's soul was probably in some hell dimension, anyway."

Both Spike and Giles reminded Xander that Buffy was the Slayer, and no matter how she died would never be going to hell. It was hard for Xander to tell who was angrier at the idea. Buffy looked ready to bolt, and Dawn gave Anya a pleading look. Anya put her hand on Giles' arm and Giles seemed to ease up a little.

"Dawn and I are going to help Buffy freshen up," Anya said, just as if they were headed to the ladies room at the Bronze.

Buffy said, "Everyone looks… different."

"We were in a weird dimension without hair dye or junk food. We lived in a tent for over a year, but it was kind of pretty," Dawn said. "What was it like for you where you were?"

"It was safe and warm; I could rest. It wasn't hell; I thought this was at first," Buffy said.

Xander felt like he should've known that the one thing Buffy wanted was to rest. He'd failed to protect one best friend from the other. But if he had to do it over he wouldn't change a thing. It wasn't just him and Will who needed Buffy. The world needed the Slayer.

"Well, it is the Hellmouth, that's close." Anya said, interrupting his thoughts. Xander had never heard her speak in that soft tone before. "Buffy, I can't tell you how much I missed indoor plumbing. But you get dibs on the first shower."

Xander watched the girls go up the stairs and wondered how Dawn had gotten so grown up and when had Anya become so caring. "Not that I'm looking a gift Scooby in the mouth but are you guys really you?"

Giles said, "The last time I saw you was over a year ago. Dawn was ill and I asked you to ring Willow and find out what she'd put in Dawn's tea."

Way to go reminding Giles of one more reason to rip Willow's head off, Xander thought. "Yeah, same here, but it was only four months ago."

Spike said, "Time just went by more quickly where we were. You smell exactly like the puffy bricklayer I've known for years."

"Yeah, Spike, I missed you, too." Xander made sure to lay the sarcasm on heavy. There was no way on earth he'd admit how true it was. Just then, Willow came breezing in the door and things got crazy again. Tara wasn't with her, but Will didn't seem to notice she'd misplaced her girlfriend.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N Please read and review. I stopped posting here for a long time because it didn't seem worth the trouble of post here anywhere but on my LJ and I'm considering giving it up again. I'm not holding the fic for ransom the fics on my LJ are open to everyone.

Giles wondered what kind of hell his family had come back to. On the way to the Summers' house he saw evidence of past looting and it didn't seem late enough at night for the shops that weren't vandalized to be shut down as they were. Had things here become so bad that a curfew had been declared? He kept Anya, Dawn, and the others in his sight while being aware of the beings in the shadows. Like someone who'd lost his home to a natural disaster he kept thinking; we're together and alive, that's what counts. He very deliberately avoided looking at Buffy, especially her hands. He couldn't begin to think of that until they were all home safe.

When they arrived, Xander was there. He almost looked ready to weep tears of joy when he saw them, yet he still insisted on defending Willow's foolish actions. Willow came through the door just as Anya came back down the stairs with the girls. Buffy was cleaner and her hands were bandaged but she still looked as if she were in shock.

"Buffy?" Willow asked. "Hey, we did it, and the rest of you are back, too; do I rock or what!"

Giles put his hand on Willow's arm. He could see Buffy still wasn't ready to be crowded.

Spike said, "Yeah, got rocks in your head!"

"I got Buffy back; you should be kissing my pretty pink toes, Spike!" Willow pulled away from Giles and he felt the dark coming off her in waves. "You should be proud, Giles, this is deeper magic than you ever accomplished."

Giles mentally counted to ten in the most obscure demon language he knew before speaking. "Yes, you are in deeper than even I have ever been. I'd like to speak to you privately about exactly how deep."

Xander edged closer to Willow and looked nervously at Giles and Spike. "Unlike some people who don't know what it's been like here, I'm really proud of you, Willow."

Spike said, "That's only because you don't have a bloody clue what she's done."

"Willow thought she was helping," Buffy said, her quiet tone catching everyone's attention. There was no real emphasis on the word 'thought' but it looked as if even Willow heard it that way. Perhaps the girl wasn't totally lost after all.

"Where's Tara; why isn't she here to celebrate?" Xander asked, filling in the awkward silence after a moment. He sounded nervous and falsely cheerful to Giles.

"Tara said she wanted to spend the night at her friends, Tim and Ian's." Willow didn't look happy with the idea.

Giles had no idea who Willow was talking about, but the news seemed to ease Xander's mind. "The landscape guys? That's good. Is anybody hungry? I don't think there's anyplace left that delivers, but we've got frozen pizza and I think there's ice cream."

Willow said, "I'm tired, I think I'll just go on up to bed." She looked anything but tired to Giles as she tramped up the stairway. It was probably just her way of avoiding any more confrontations tonight, but he didn't press the issue. Willow might not be tired, but he was. Besides, Buffy looked ready to shatter and she didn't need to witness more strife.

"Is pizza made of chocolate?" Stephen asked.

Buffy was shaking her head and looked as if she wanted to go to bed, too, but Stephen's question stopped her. "I don't think even Xander would try that topping," she said.

"He should; Spike told me chocolate is bloody brilliant!" Stephen's tone was one of absolute certainty that Spike was right about all things. Buffy let out a short laugh and soon everyone left in the living room was giggling. "What's so funny?"

"They're laughing at me, not you, Pugs," Spike explained.

Dawn said, "Yeah, the hair may change every 30 years or so but the sweet tooth remains the same."

"I like it," Buffy said, "It's reassuring."

"The hair or the sweet tooth?" Spike asked. It was obvious to Giles that what was reassuring to Buffy was that Spike's affection hadn't changed. When Giles looked at Anya she rolled her eyes as if to say, their love lives are the least of our worries.

"Hey, I bet I could make a really good chocolate pizza!" Dawn said.

Dinner, if you could call it that, was surprisingly cheerful. There was an unspoken agreement not to speak about anything serious. Dawn found cookie dough in the refrigerator and topped it with marshmallow, nuts, chocolate, and toffee pieces to make a dessert pizza. Everybody was much more impressed with that than the pepperoni. Buffy didn't eat much, but she did seem a little more engaged. She kept sending Giles confused glances.

Finally, Buffy said, "Giles, you just ate all the nuts off Anya's dessert!"

"That's all right, Buffy, he knows I don't like them."

"Anya didn't tell you about us?" Giles asked, with a sinking feeling that there was about to be another scene.

"I was waiting for us to tell her together once things calmed down," Anya said.

"That was probably wise," Giles said, trying to decide where to start. Buffy sat there, opening her mouth a few times, but clearly couldn't figure out what to say.

Dawn said, "We chickened out. I didn't say anything about the whole dad thing either."

"We decided exposition was a man's job; like mowing the lawn and spiders in the bathtub," Anya said.

"Dad thing?" Buffy asked, then held up her hand. "On second thought, don't tell me. I've reached information saturation point and need to wring out my brain. If I've still got a bed to sleep in, I'm going to lie down."

Xander said, "I've been using a cot in Dawn's room. Your room's just the same, Buffy. I guess you and Dawn can share for now."

"I'll have to sleep on the floor," Dawn said. "But that's no big."

After Dawn and Buffy went upstairs Xander asked, "Would you and Ahn mind the floor in the living room, Giles? I don't think Will would give up Joyce's old room even if she were still up. The good news is we got your landlady to give us your stuff when your rent ran out. The non magic things are boxed up in the basement. Willow and Tara had to kind of raid all things mystic."

Giles was impressed with Xander. It was clear he had put his own plans on hold to help his friends deal with the Hellmouth and now he was playing gracious host. A childish part of Giles wanted Anya's ex to be the bad guy so that he could be her knight in shinning armor. Instead of the bad guy, Xander was just the wrong man at the wrong time. So he would have to be more than satisfied at being the right one. He said, "Thank you."

Xander said, "I'll say it one more time; I'm glad you're back. It's going to take us a while to get Sunnydale back to what passed for normal around here. It's been very nasty here at night."

"What about me and Pugs here?" Spike asked. Stephen had fallen asleep on the vampire's lap in spite of his first experience with refined sugar and chocolate. "Don't have a clue who's squatting in my crypt now."

"You and Stephen can't live in a crypt!" Anya said.

"Wasn't planning to," Spike said, "but I can't exactly go out and rent a flat tonight."

"There's room in the basement for Spike," Xander said. "Does the kid have sunlight issues too?"

"He not a vamp." Spike growled quietly.

Xander said, "Sorry, papa bear."

Giles considered the question. "We don't know what Stephen is. It might be a good idea to be careful at first in the morning. Just to be on the safe side."

"I know vamps can't have kids normally but for some reason I thought he was Spike's kid," Xander said. "You know, I'm with Buffy; don't tell me anymore until I've had a good night's sleep."

888

Xander and Buffy might've found some comfort in sleep, but not Giles. He left the pallet on the living room floor after staring at the ceiling for an eternity and went into the kitchen for tea. "Hey there," Anya said in a sleep rumpled voice.

Giles said, "I didn't mean to wake you, dear."

"That's okay; I was having nightmares anyway. I think it might be better to stay up and worry with you."

Giles set the kettle on the burner and Anya found some ridiculously flavored teabags. He stood there for a moment and just enjoyed the fact the fact that he didn't have to worry alone anymore. It had been the case for a while, but after most of a lifetime of being alone, it wouldn't lose its novelty anytime soon.

"I just don't know what she was thinking of, Anya! It's true I never had time to actually train with Willow, but it's not as if I never discussed the ethics of magic use with her. When she first showed an interest I told her actions had consequences. I told her that the darker magics had a great price."

"I hate to play Willow's advocate, but maybe she felt like she had no choice."

"There's always a choice. She would sit there earnestly smiling and nod. Taking notes with colored pens! I should've known it was all going in one ear and out the other," Giles said in a furious whisper, not wanting to wake the whole house. "Worst of all, I just sounded exactly like my father!"

"Willow was probably too busy drawing little hearts and writing 'Willow & Giles' in them to listen." At Giles' incredulous look she continued, "Don't tell me you didn't know she had a crush on you before she was gay."

"You're just trying to make me feel better."

"Is it working?" Anya asked and placed a tender kiss on his palm. This did distract him a bit. He reminded himself that there were enough people sharing the house that the kitchen qualified as a public place.

"Your touch always makes me feel better, but my head's still going in circles. There may not have been any immediate consequences but a spell like this… The whole town's a mess. We have nowhere to live and no idea what condition the shop's in. And God only knows how Buffy must be feeling right now."

"Even in the best of times, Sunnydale didn't have a housing shortage. We'll find a place and we'll deal with the rest as it comes up." Anya was quiet for a moment while Giles made the tea. "Giles, does Buffy have a doctor? I mean one that knows she's a Slayer?"

"No, why? You don't think that there's something physically wrong with her do you?" Giles asked in alarm.

"I don't know; she looks broken."

"It would be a good idea to make sure she's physically and mentally well, but I wouldn't trust a Council doctor and who else will believe all this?" Giles asked.

"If my doctor hasn't taken her spawn and left town I can get Buffy in to see her."

"Spawn?"

"Well, I guess she doesn't call them 'spawn' unless they're being annoying. She's one quarter Brachen. She went to Harvard," Anya said.

"Buffy hates doctors. This idea won't make her very happy but if you're sure we can trust this doctor, I'll do my best to convince her."

"We have a plan, there's no way we're going to cure war and global warming by morning, so I think we should go back to our comfy floor."

Giles sighed. "I was so looking forward to having a real bed at last," he said.


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Truth & Possibilities9?

Author: Appomattoxco

Rating: FRT violence and some strong language

Pairings: Giles/Anya with Spike and Dawn friendships.

Summary: Very AU Post the episode "The Gift" The summer after Buffy dies, Giles and Anya find out more about Dawn and the Key.

Disclaimer: I don't own BtVS, Angel or much of anything and I'm not making money off this it's only for fun.

A/N: This story is dedicated to LJS and Zanthinegirl. It's beta by the wonderful JaneDavitt and Agilebrit is as usual an invaluable sounding board.

A/N 2: If you're reading this let me know what you think. Between the fight and the original characters I'm a nervous wreck.

When Tara saw the lights on at Jack and Ian's place she realized she couldn't go home with Willow. . Ian had introduced himself to Tara when they met at a plant nursery and he recognized her as a neighbor. He was the kind of warm, cheerful person that made friends easily, even with shy people.

Tara felt empty and achy, she just didn't want to deal with hyper buzz-y Willow tonight. Maybe after spending a peaceful night with her friends she would have the courage to tell Willow that she didn't want to go to Rack's again. Every time they went, she came home feeling diminished. Willow didn't understand; the 'boost' Rack gave them felt good to her. Tara knew it wasn't good for either of them. At first, she'd believed Willow was right; that this was the only way of getting the help they needed. She was fairly certain now that Rack was a con artist and the only one gaining power from this arrangement was him.

She wondered if Buffy would be back by now if they had just researched and found a spell on their own. Maybe they could ask Angel for help again or even try to get somebody from the Council here.

Ian came to the door wearing old gray sweat shorts and a white T-shirt. "Tara! Come in, what's happened to you?"

Tara backed up, suddenly aware that he looked ready for bed. "I'm sorry, I, this was a bad idea. It's too late to just show up like this." In street clothes and his wire rimmed glasses, Ian Blackwood usually looked like a bearded teddy bear of a man. Kind of a thirty something Santa with brown wavy hair and twinkling grey eyes. Tonight, without the glasses, and dressed so casually, he seemed more bear-like than teddy-ish, barrel shaped and hairy.

"Don't go," he said, stepping out on the porch. "We weren't asleep – just vegging on the couch. And if you go now I won't be able to sleep all night wondering why you came by. We have kettle corn." The image of Santa returned to Tara's tired mind. Ian sounded as if she were a fractious reindeer he was luring down from a rooftop. "Come on in, girl, if we keep standing here like this every bug in the neighborhood will be in here." He put his arm around her gently and led her inside where Jack was waiting, anxious to find out what was going on.

Tara said, "You shouldn't invite people in after dark. There's been a lot of vandalism around here lately."

"I looked though the window and I knew it was you before I opened the door," Ian defended his common sense.

"But people can become strangers when you're not paying attention," Tara tried to explain. She was so exhausted she wanted to cry but lacked the energy.

"Is that what happened? Did someone become a stranger?" Jack asked.

"Something like that." It was simpler than trying to explain, and it was true enough. "Would it be too much trouble if I spent the night?"

"Don't mind the detective," Ian said. "He was raised by a cop and the interrogation skills rubbed off some. You don't have to explain anything."

"Of course you don't. I'll go make sure the guest room has clean sheets. Would you like a T-shirt to sleep in?" Jack was about 6'4" and had a face and body that was all hard angles. It had been difficult to get comfortable around him when they first met. It was the love he had for Ian that endeared him to Tara eventually. Tonight his brown eyes were full of concern for her. He gave Ian a quick kiss, told him to make some tea, and loped up the stairs before Tara could say another word about not going to any trouble.

The guest room they put her in would be bright and cheerful in the morning and it had a comfortable twin bed. She fell into a dreamless sleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Something woke her a little while later. At first she thought it was just a chill and reached for the blanket. Then she heard the clicking sound, like a dog with long nails walking on the oak floor. A shadow in the corner seemed to separate from the surrounding darkness and Tara's heart clenched and sped up. She screamed and it grabbed her. It felt like a snake; its dry rubbery arm was solid muscle. There was no way she could fight it physically; she tried to summon up a spell, but she was still drained. "Why fight it, little girl?" it hissed in her ear, "You've been sold for shiny parlor tricks and the shadow of a hero. Now the dark will rise. You're nothing, you matter not at all."

Rage filled her and focused her power. "Nobody gets away with calling me nothing, anymore!" It wasn't much, but she was able to pull the demon's scaly arms off her.

Before she could get to the bedroom door, Jack came in carrying a wooden baseball bat. The demon lunged for him, but Jack was lucky and the blow hit the demon squarely in the face, making a sound like a mallet hitting a melon. The demon hissed and clawed blindly, leaving a couple of long gashes in Jack's right arm. "I should've listened to my dad and bought a gun! Quiet little town, my ass."

Ian came in then, armed with one of those long flashlights that take a ton of batteries and he managed to hit the demon hard in the elbow. Jack raised the bat to hit the demon while it was down and Tara incanted a fragility spell in the same instant. Its head shattered like it had been dipped in liquid nitrogen and its reptilian body twitched and thrashed a few times before it became dead still.

"Oh god, Jack, you're bleeding." Ian said, looking sick and sitting on the edge of the bed.

"It's just a scratch, I'm fine. Ian hates blood," Jack said to Tara, "And you look like you're going to faint, too. Sit down. And I can't stand scaly things, the fuck was that?"

"I don't suppose you'll go back to bed and decide this was all a dream?" The men both gave her incredulous looks. She felt guilty for revealing how unreal the world really was. "Didn't think so. I don't know what it was exactly, I'll um- need to look it up. Are you sure your arm feels all right? The claws might've had poison on them."

"I've been snake bit and stung before. This feels like just a scratch," Jack said. He had taken off his T-shirt and was holding the cloth to the cut.

"After five years I find out I'm living with John Wayne," Ian said.

"Nope, just John Kowalski's only son," Jack replied, obviously taking comfort in well-worn banter, "If it makes you feel better, I'll cry when I put the antiseptic on it."

Ian said, "I'll go get the bandages and stuff. You want me to cover the creature from the black lagoon with a sheet or something, Jack?"

"Could you please? I keep looking and making my skin crawl."


	10. Chapter 10

When Buffy was little a babysitter had let her see a movie about the Salem witch trials. In the movie, a woman was bound and laid on the ground. A door was put on top of her chest and her accusers piled river rocks on top, one at a time. She'd felt like that woman for a long time now.

Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if she could sleep without dreaming; just get some rest. There wasn't a chance to rest, though; the Hellmouth was overrun with run of the mill demons and they had bigger problems, too.

Tara and Willow had argued when Tara got home. Willow had said something about how Tara wasn't the price she agreed to pay Rack. Tara demanded to know just who or what the was supposed to be. Now Willow had taken off She wouldn't answer just got black eyed and angry then took off.and e Even Xander didn't know where she waswent. Buffy had spent another long night patrolling with Spike while he tried to sniff out where Rack and possibly, Willow were hiding. Giles and Anya claimed the black Sleestack demons, like the one that attacked Tara at her friends' house, were big trouble. It was likely that Rack was the one who'd sent it to kill Tara, and it was better to go after Rack himself than to wait for another hired gun to show up. Only Spike couldn't find the damn place. He kept muttering about spending too much time playing nanny until they both got fed up and headed home.

"I guess you really aren't quite so bad anymore, huh, Spike?" Buffy asked.

"Ask Stephen about bath time, Slayer. He'll set you straight."

This coaxed a smile out of Buffy. She decided that of all the changes in the people around her, the changes in Spike were the most pleasant. He was easier to be around now. He'd lost a tiny bit of that constant frustration of his. He was still no pet kitty but he was less of a caged beast. Who knew? The secret to making Spike less annoying was to give him something to do. It could also be Stephen himself. A couple of times the kid had worn himself out playing and decided Buffy's lap was the place to nap. She found there was something healing about a lap full of trusting little boy. Did Spike feel the same way? Or was he too busy pushing back the voice in his head screaming, snack time?

"Bugger, looks like we have company!" Spike said. There were two of those lizard things scaling the outside of her house. Spike grabbed the tail of the one climbing the trellis and let out a startled yelp when the tail broke off. Buffy made a mental note not to grab their tails and filed away Spike's yelp for future teasing.

All this information was gleaned in one quick look because she soon had her hands full with the demon that was trampling her mother's flowerbed. The demon hissed in her ear, "We're not after you, we were sent for the witch. But you know, it doesn't matter to us if you go back to the earth again. The bargain he made was to bring you back. There was no promise you'd stay here."

"You know that tongue of yours tickles? Distracting, but not very scary." Breaking free from the demon with a head butt, Spike had just finished dismembering the tailless guy and now used his sword on the tickler.

Buffy looked up and saw one more Sleestack slip into an upstairs window and she followed it with Spike close behind. Buffy didn't get chance to land a single punch. Giles got there first with an axe. Spike looked at the messily decapitated demon and said, "Good on you, Rupes. Joyce would approve." Buffy would've thought nothing of it but Spike and everyone else in the room suddenly looked very uncomfortable. "Um, I think the rug rat here needs to go back to bed." Spike picked up Stephen and headed downstairs.

"What's going on?" Buffy asked, looking at Giles for an explanation.

Tara said, "You know I think it might be a good idea if Xander and I got rid of the bodies and other broken stuff. You guys really need to go someplace and. have a Giles- Summers family meeting."

Giles frowned. "Yes, I've put it off too long. Perhaps in Tara's room, Buffy?" he asked.

Mom's room was the most uncomfortable place in the whole house for Buffy. She didn't complain though, afraid if she did they'd just put off whatever it was that needed to be said longer.

"Maybe this should be a Watcher/Slayer moment," Dawn said."Anya and I can do dishes or something."

"That's an excellent suggestion, Dawn, but I think Tara's right. This is something you and Giles should talk over with Buffy," Anya said.

"No, you don't," Giles said to Anya and he actually gave her a playful swat on the bottom. So, Buffy thought, maybe they weren't going to tell her something truly terrible after all.

Buffy sat down on the bed that didn't look like her mom's anymore. Dawn sat on the floor with her head by Buffy's knee, just like she used to do when she wanted to horn in on private Buffy and Mom time.

Anya sat next to Buffy. Buffy thought that Anya looked like she wanted to touch her but wasn't sure. She remembered how Anya and Dawn had cleaned her up the night she came back. Anya had been ridiculously careful about the task. Buffy wondered why, after all, the Slayer was always hurt or healing and Anya knew it.

On impulse, Buffy reached out to hold Anya's hand and one of those rocks rolled off her chest when Giles saw this and smiled at them all. Giles took the chair from the vanity and sat in it, facing them. "Well," he said, like he didn't know where to start.

"You gave me the 'one girl in all the world speech.' This can't be that bad, Giles. It's not a Slayer thing, everybody's calling it a family thing. The last time somebody called a family meeting this tense, my mom told us about the divorce."

Dawn said, "Nobody's leaving. It's nothing bad, Buffy, I promise."

"It's simply that you've had a lot to adjust to and this is another new thing to take in,." Giles said.

"Dawn didn't want to tell me about 'the dad thing.' Oh my God, did you get Anya pregnant, Giles?" Buffy wondered why this thought wasn't really gross. She supposed the girl that thought like that had gotten old. Now, if there was any kind of happiness in this world she wanted it for her friends.

"No, but it is something like that." Giles went on to explain Dawn's origin and how he was her father.

Buffy was a little insulted they thought this would be so hard for her to take. Did they think she'd be jealous of Dawn's new relationship with Giles or upset that Dawn wasn't some sort of mini Buffy? She felt a little of both, but mostly she was relieved. Her sister was her sister again and there was somebody to share the responsibility with. One of those big rocks had just broken in half.

"So you're okay with this?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah, it's strange, but hey, there's nothing about you that isn't weird," Buffy teased. "You know Stephen spilled the beans but I thought that when he called Giles Dawn's daddy it was just little kid for 'man who bosses her around'. Was it hard not call Giles 'Dad' the last few days?"

"I don't call him that very often," Dawn said. "It felt strange and I didn't think you'd want me to."

Buffy said, "I was dead." It seemed to be easier for her to say than for the others to hear and she felt mean for reminding them.

"It didn't make any difference; you never stopped being my sister," Dawn said.

"Not dead me thinks it would be okay for you call Giles 'Dad'. If it's what you both want?" Giles nodded. Buffy was pretty sure that he'd had the same look on his face the day she'd won her class protector award.

"Buffy," Anya said. "Now would be a great time for a group hug. You've been squeezing my hand so long my fingers have gone numb."


	11. Chapter 11

Title: Truth & Possibilities 11

A/N This more a bridge than an actual chapter and subject to change. I'm not happy with it but I'm feeling needy and want some feedback.

Author: Appomattoxco

Rating: FRT violence and some strong language

Pairings: Giles/Anya with Spike and Dawn friendships.

Summary: Very AU Post the episode "The Gift" The summer after Buffy dies, Giles and Anya find out more about Dawn and the Key.

Disclaimer: I don't own BtVS, Angel or much of anything and I'm not making money off this it's only for fun.

Willow gathered her rage and power around her like a dark cloak as she left the house. The heaviness of her anger muted the voice in her head that said her power was threadbare in places. Tara belonged to her. She had once nearly killed a hell-god for her girl. Killing Rack would be like squishing a tadpole; distasteful but easy. Once Rack was dead, Tara would be safe and things would be right again between them. Buffy was back now and everything would be normal again soon. There was no way Rack was as powerful as Glory had been, even if he'd had the means to bring Buffy back, she rationalized over and over.

Rack's place had been as easy to find as it always was for her. However, Willow wasn't fooled into thinking that he didn't know she was coming after him. She put a great deal of power into breaking through the door and Rack used this against her by opening it wide in a false welcome.

"Hi there, Strawberry." Rack's voice slid over her nerves; greasy and cheerful, but in no way soothing. "This is going to be a blast."

She steadied herself after the tumble through the door and tried to gather up more power. "What do you think you're doing sending your lizard assassins after Tara?" she demanded.

She managed to send a surge of magic that knocked Rack against the wall for a moment, but his WD-40 grin never faltered and he returned the blow doubled."Come on, you knew going in that there'd be a price. I think I'm giving you a real bargain here. You got a Slayer for the price of one slightly used little witch."

Willow sent a ball of flame toward Rack. It turned back to her and flared into a circle of fire that surrounded her. Suddenly she couldn't move her body at all and when she tried to put out the ring of fire, she failed.

"Take me then and leave Tara alone." The second the words were out of her mouth Willow wanted to take them back. She'd been prepared to kill for Tara without question but she didn't think she could die for anyone.

"Oh, don't worry, sweet one, I won't take you up on the offer. Why should I? I already have you and I like you better alive than dead. I also think it'll be more fun if we can see each other."

Willow blinked once when the flames surrounding her died. For the space of the blink, she thought she was free, but Rack had only changed her prison. She was lifted a couple feet into the air and encased in a bubble. It felt like the spell she had conjured up so Amy the rat could run around her room, only she wasn't going anywhere.

"I don't know, I think the curtain of fire was a prettier view." The truth was Willow hated fire but she was still enough of a Scooby to go down quipping. Maybe she could get him angry enough to slip up.

Rack laughed and Willow felt cold phantom fingers run through her hair. The worst part of it was that she couldn't even shudder. "Yeah, it's one of the reasons I'm keeping you around, Strawberry. You just need to learn to relax."

A red haze filled her bubble and Willow tried to hold her breath. Eventually, the sickly sweet stuff was inside her lungs, her mind, inside all of her. When the air of her prison was clear, she was stripped of her will and released


	12. Chapter 12

Title: Truth & Possibilities 12/?

Author: Appomattoxco

Rating: FRT violence and some strong language

Pairings: Giles/Anya with the usual suppects.

Summary: If you don't know by now…

Disclaimer: I don't own BtVS, Angel or much of anything and I'm not making money off this it's only for fun.

A/N: Huge hugs and thanks to janedavit for the beta and "zanthinegirl for reading.

A/N #2 : Because of the shifting POVs in this story sometimes you'll notice a little overlap timewise. This is going to be obvious in the next few chapters. Let me know if it's confusing. Previous chapter a href"http://appomattoxco. woke up when the light in the window of the master bedroom began to gray. For a moment, he didn't know where he was. They had moved things around and bought a couple of beds. Now Dawn and Buffy were sharing Buffy's room, and Tara had Dawn's old room, with Spike and Stephen sharing the basement. It was far from ideal, but it was temporary, and at least Xander had found a new apartment.

The double bed in Tara's room was big enough for Willow too, but Giles guiltily hoped they found out Willow was safe but far away. His stomach began to burn, so he got out of his blessedly real and warm bed to see if there were any biscuits left in the kitchen. It didn't take Anya long to find him, and he was pouring them both some milk when Buffy and Spike rushed in. "I didn't get him, Giles. Spike couldn't sniff out the place," Buffy said tiredly.

"It's for the best," Giles said. "Rack isn't the sort you can fight with physical force."

"He's got a contract out on Tara; what am I supposed to do; think him to death?" Buffy asked. lj-cut

"We'll need to fight magic with magic. I don't know why I didn't think about it before."

He decided that he must be getting old, then he sat next to Anya and she gave his knee a reassuring squeeze. It shaved off a few years.

"Magic started this whole problem," Spike complained, "Besides, our big gun witch-wise is AWOL."

Giles noted how frayed and tired Buffy looked and tried to reassure her, "There's Tara, and Anya and I aren't without resources." He knew of a coven in L.A. and Anya might have some useful friends. "We'll manage."

"Yes, managing is our specialty. Speaking of that, we're going to reopen the shop tomorrow." Anya checked the clock on the stove and corrected herself, "Er – today. We might as well get an early start. Buffy, can you be there to help in the afternoon after you've gotten some sleep?" When Buffy nodded, Anya added, "And Spike, too, unless he thinks Stephen will be dangerously bored. We need all the help we can get."

Spike said, "Sure, it would be nice to be useful seeing as I can't find that bloody Merlin wanna-be." He snatched the plate and the last chocolate chip cookie. It was a good thing Giles resisted calling him a git because Spike passed the plate immediately to Buffy. "If Pugs does get too bad I can take him home to catch up on the wonders of telly, or save myself the trip and rip out his throat."

"Right," Anya said, "we all know the chip probably doesn't work on Stephen and I've seen him really annoy you. You have amazing control of your demon. You wouldn't rip his throat out if somebody covered it in chocolate and O-neg first." Giles didn't want to agree with her, but he'd seen it himself. It was amusing to see Spike's reaction; the poor vampire looked as if he couldn't choose between puffing out his chest with pride and demanding a retraction. He ended up muttering something about beauty sleep and heading for the basement. It looked to Giles like Spike added more dramatic swish than usual to his coat. "You know, honey," Anya said once Buffy had left, too, "it doesn't surprise me that Spike didn't find Rack's place when Buffy was there."

"Are you saying he was subconsciously trying to appear less evil to impress her?"

"No, it's more like asking him to tune into the evil with her around is like asking a compass to point north around a great big magnet. I think Buffy is like Spike's personal true north."

A year ago, Giles would have scoffed and called this an overly romantic view. These days the little voice telling him not to trust Spike was very tiny and easily dismissed. Even so, he made an annoyed hmm because the last thing he wanted to talk about was Spike's feelings for Buffy. Besides, he had his own true north now and she was looking a little too dreamy eyed about someone who was not him. Rationally, he knew Anya wasn't holding Spike up as some romantic ideal, but he still took it as a challenge. "Is it really necessary for us to start breakfast? Couldn't we go back to bed?"

"I suppose we could, but there's no way I'd get back to sleep," Anya said, a sly, sexy smile on her face.

* * *

In spite of how well it had begun, the day had been long and difficult. Giles hit the end button on the phone and silently wished it were the kind you could slam onto the receiver. None of his L.A. contacts were in town because there was some sort of retreat or convention going on.

Anya said, "We ordered blessed beeswax and got slug candles. We must've done something to incur the wrath of the UPS gods. Three deliveries were made to the shop today and every one was somehow damaged or wrong."

Dawn came in from the training room where she was doing her homework. "Dad, remember to restock the bandages in the training room kit. We just used the last on Stephen."

"Lord, what's happened now?"

Dawn said, "You know that thing about running with scissors? It applies to running with throwing stars, too. It was messy."

"Does he need stitches?" Anya asked.

"Spike and Buffy both say not. The kid heals fast. You don't need to rush in; Buffy has it covered, literally." Dawn waved a dismissive hand. "New and less gory topic; when Janice asked where I spent the summer, I told her I was in England meeting your folks. She told everybody and they were all impressed. Soo, Dad, do you think we could really go there next summer so I'm sort of telling the truth early?"

"You know," Giles said, "I have caught on that you make a point of calling me Dad when you want something, but I think that a trip can probably be arranged."

At least Dawn was in a good mood. School must've really gone well. He'd asked when she got in, of course, but all she'd said at the time was 'fine' and Giles knew 'fine' could mean anything. It could mean: I met a boy I like and don't want to tell you, or, all the teachers/ kids hate me and I don't want to tell you. For all he knew, 'fine' could mean, my friends and I opened the portal to a hell dimension in the band room. Most of the things a teenager would refer to as 'fine' to her parent featured in his nightmares, but this time fine was just that.

Dawn's happy squeal of joy over the promised trip was cut short by the jangle of the bells as the door opened with more force than necessary.

"Where's my son?" Angel demanded.


	13. Chapter 13

Title: Truth & Possibilities 13/?

Author: Appomattoxco

Rating: FRT violence and some strong language

Pairings: Giles/Anya with the usual suppects.

Summary: If you don't know by now…

Disclaimer: I don't own BtVS, Angel or much of anything and I'm not making money off this it's only for fun.

A/N: Huge hugs and thanks to Jane for the beta and Zanthinegirl for reading.

A/N#2: It's probably a good thing I'm posting this while my US reader[s are getting ready for the ritual scarifice with pie. I'm really scared about this one. Don't hate me too much.

Dru came into the Hyperion lobby under a singed-smelling blanket. She was starved and ragged looking. Her forehead was ridged and her teeth were out. Maybe she no longer had the energy to expend on a human mask. Angel didn't feel one twinge of pity and very little curiosity. He had other things to worry about.

"What are you doing here, Dru?"

"Roar, you're such an angry lion. I'm angry too, lion, you've let all your cubs stray and you'll be punished for it." Drusilla swayed, probably listening to voices of pixies or the stars, or whoever it was that told her the future these days. Her mind had a rotating play list and Angel could never keep up. "The only one you're interested in is your cub in lamb's clothing. Is a beating heart so very important?"

"Connor! Do you know where he is, Dru?"

"The leaves on the trees whispered to it me."

"I don't care if the moon told you a bedtime story!"

Drusilla laughed. "That would be silly; the moon is only a big rock. Do you remember our rock, Daddy?" lj-cut

He remembered. "I'm not your daddy. I'm Connor's father." He slipped into his true face, then grabbed her by the hair. The dark hair was brittle and some broke off in his hand when he let go. He brushed it away in disgust. "If you don't stop playing games and tell me where he is…" He let the threat trail off. Even Dru could figure this one out. Angel was sure Dru was making him wait to find out about his son to punish him. Once upon a time, he would've taken it as his due. Maybe even wallowed in the guilt. Not anymore.

Dru danced a few steps away. "Poor you, while daddy was a-hunting the baby bunting grew and grew." She giggled. "Can you tell I ate a poet once?"

"It's great poem," he growled. "What's that mean?"

"Time was wibbly-wobbly and took his tenderest years from you."

Angel took a step back and sat down hard into the lobby sofa. "Is he old? Please not dead?"

Drusilla stilled for a moment as if listening to the rustle of leaves. "He's still a delicious little boy… Big brother Spike is cleaning up his owie. It's right here." She took his hand and turned it palm up; before he could think to pull away, she had sliced the base of his thumb with her nail.

Angel pulled his hand away and watched the blood well up. He vividly recalled the games Spike and Dru played with the young prey Drusilla preferred. Dru would make little cuts and they would lick them clean like kittens. Days of hurt and false comfort that sweetened the blood until he or William got bored with the crying and finished the quivering little thing off. His guts clenched in a hideous combination of fear, hunger and anger. The hunger was Wolfram & Hart's fault; because of them, a small part of him still thought of his son as food. That made his rage even greater. "If Spike's hurt my son, I'm going to make that misbegotten monster beg to be dust."

Dru spun in a dizzy circle clapping her hands. "Will you punish William? He's been a naughty uncle. Hangs the boy by the ankles while he screams and squeals. Worse of all," she said, "He drowns him until the poor thing's all pruney and then puts him to bed under the ground." She shivered in a way that would've been a sexy shimmy if she didn't look so wasted away. Instead, she looked like a Halloween skeleton blowing in the October wind. "Your boys sleep in the damp and the dark."

"I said before that the games are over, Dru." She was goading him like in the old days. Pitting him against Spike -- but she wasn't lying. He could always tell when she was doing that. Spike did have his son and he was doing those things to him.

"Oh careful, if you don't want to play I may topple the board. They've all come home to the mouth of hell. Ask the Watcher, he knows where they are." Dru flashed a fangy grin that somehow reminded him of Darla. "That Watcher you wanted to buzz to bits not the one you just tried to put to sleep. He was a good kisser, buzzy one, I mean. Go to the Hellmouth and find him."

Rage kept building and building in Angel and with every word Dru said it grew worse. Why did he keep her around to remind him of his sins? He knew what he was, what he'd done; he didn't need her anymore. "The game is over." It took no effort at all to stake her. He didn't even feel relieved, but then, he hadn't expected to.

* * *

On the ride to Sunnydale, a few rational thoughts the size of gnats buzzed in his head. Like the suggestion that blind anger was never good, and maybe it was an unnatural anger. He swatted away the thought that Dru had drugged or bewitched him before he was out of the city. Because all that mattered was hurting Spike for what he'd done to his son.

When Angel got to the Magic Box he didn't spare a thought for the door hinges on his car or the shop. He didn't waste time on an explanation or a polite request for help, he demanded an answer. "Where's my son?"

Angel didn't even look in Giles' direction to see his reaction to his question. He smelled the boy's blood and followed his nose right past Giles. Tara got in his way, coming out of the storeroom with something in her hands. He shoved her aside and there was the sound of breaking glass in his wake.

Then he saw them. Right there in a room that Buffy must've had set up as a place to train. There was the sound of water running behind a door to the left, maybe a bathroom? He could hear the sound of the boy's heart beating quickly. Spike said something, but everything was masked by white noise.

It wasn't until he'd made Spike bleed a little that he thought at all. "What is this?" Angel asked as he pounded into Spike like he was the heavy bag hanging nearby. "Giles is right in the other room. Isn't my boy human enough for him to care, or is this revenge for Jenny?" Angel didn't allow Spike to answer; he just kept hitting him.

A small body attacked Angel from behind and he easily threw it off. It wasn't until he smelled a fresh wave of Connor's blood that he realized the attacker was his son. He turned to see that Connor had been knocked out when he landed against the wall.

Spike let out a roar of rage and they were soon rolling on the mat again. Spike seemed to be taking the fight more seriously now and he got a few good punches in. Angel could tell he was trying to move them closer to the wall where the weapons were hung. Spike could go ahead and try; it would only give him one more excuse to start taking pieces off him.

The sound of Dawn screaming, "Buffy, do something!" cut through the white noise and then a strong hand wrenched him away from Spike.

Angel said, "Stay the hell out of this or I'll break your neck." He was more than willing to rip apart that stupid robot. He had been in game face for the fight and when he realized it was really Buffy his jaw dropped.

For a long moment Buffy appeared just as dumbstruck as Angel was, then she fumbled for a stake. He realized too late he'd just bent toward her neck and displayed every pointy tooth in his mouth. Buffy's face looked oddly blank as her stake slipped with a soft thud to the mat. For a spilt second he thought he'd have a chance to explain.

He'd always believed that dusting happened in a blink. That a vampire's existence ended before he knew what hit him. That wasn't the case. From this side of things, it seemed to take an infinitely long time to come apart molecule by molecule, longer than the fight itself. In that time, he figured it all out.

He'd been dusted because of his own stupidity. Drusilla wanted revenge, or the stars had told her this was a way for her to be together with him and Darla again; possibly both. He'd fallen right into her trap. Worst of all, he'd been so busy getting revenge for things he'd thought were done to Connor that he'd hurt him without realizing it.

His only comfort was that he knew Spike hadn't actually been hurting Connor. Buffy was there and she wouldn't have allowed that. In fact, if Angel hadn't appeared to be ready to attack Buffy, Spike would've been content to continue to pound him into the mat. Well, he would have tried to, anyway. Spike had caught him by surprise with that stake. Angel's final thought was that Spike hadn't really won their last fight.


	14. Chapter 14

Fear and denial had been playing tug-of-war in Jack Kowalski's head since the night something black and scaly had shown up in his guestroom trying to kill Tara. Now denial was being pulled through the mud and getting rope burns. That was all right with him; as a psychologist he could work with fear. Denial, on the other hand, only caused trouble, and he was sure what had happened had been real.

Jack was also fairly sure somebody was watching him, somebody or something hungry. He halted in front of April Fool's, trying to see whoever it was in the dress shop window.

"Jack, what's wrong?" Ian asked. "That's the third time you've stopped to look in a shop window; you never window shop."

"I think somebody's following us."

"There are people on the street tonight and everything's well lit," Ian reassured him.

Jack nodded but he really didn't any feel better. "Maybe I am being slightly paranoid. It looks like that place Tara's friends used to run has reopened. Let's go in there."

Bells jingled when they entered the Magic Box and Jack heard the sound of crying from somewhere in the back. The shop itself appeared to be empty. His dad didn't talk a lot about work, but cops' kids picked stuff up, so Jack's already fearful mind put two and two together and came up with something scary. He backed out of the shop and pulled Ian with him. Once on the sidewalk again, they heard a loud roar that sounded like a grief stricken animal,

Ian pulled his cell phone out to dial 911. "Damn, I forgot to charge it!"

"Stay here," Jack said, "or better yet, go to the coffee shop. I'll be right there."

"Wait, you're not going back in there?"

"Take a look around, Ian. There's a cop right across the street. He didn't even look up at that noise, nobody did."

Ian asked, "What is this? You help to kill one giant gecko and you're suddenly Batman?"

"Whoever's in there needs help."

"You win, Jack, but if you're playing Batman, I'm Robin. You're not going in alone." He grinned. "Just so you know, I'm not wearing tights, though; those things are evil!"

Jack did his best to creep quietly in the door with Ian behind him. It made him startle when the bells on the door rang out cheerfully once more. He looked behind the counter for a panic button or something to use as a weapon. He found a mace of all freaking things, but decided against picking it up. The whole place was filled with stuff that would inspire Stephen King, but Jack wasn't here to browse.

The back room wasn't for storage, but was set up as some kind of dojo. In the middle of the room, a man with bleached hair was weeping and clinging to an unresponsive blonde girl. Tara and a teenage girl were busy trying to comfort them, and didn't notice him or Ian. The teen tried to get the girl to respond to her and the man roared like a wounded beast.

A man around Jack's own age, who was holding a crying little boy noticed Jack and Ian. "I'm sorry, we're not open for business just yet," he said, as if he were relieved that at least he knew what to say to them. The kid had a healing bruise on his head and was saying, 'want spike, spike, want spike!' over and over and the man had to speak loudly. "Hush, Stephen. Spike is busy taking care of Buffy." The kid gave the older guy a narrow-eyed look, but he did quiet down.

In an embarrassed rush, Ian said, "You must be Mr. Giles, Tara said you were British. I'm Ian and this is Jack. We were passing by and thought we heard some trouble. Has that man hurt the girl?"

The brown haired woman beside Giles spoke up. "No, it's not that. Spike hasn't hurt Buffy. She's just had a shock or something. It's really just a small family crisis; don't worry about a thing. Please stop back in a few days when you've forgotten your awkward questions."

Jack blinked. "Maybe I can help after all; helping families in crisis is my job."

She said, "That's odd, I thought Xander called you the landscape guys?"

Ian explained, "I'm a part owner of Sunnydale Landscape Designs."

Mr. Giles stood closer to the woman and placed himself very deliberately between the weeping couple and Jack. "I don't think now is a good time for a chat."

"We should just go, Jack," Ian murmured.

The teenaged girl turned toward Giles and reported, "Buffy's not talking and Spike's falling apart."

"It will be all right, Dawn," Giles said.

Dawn didn't seem to be any more convinced than Jack was by this but she let herself be petted and comforted by Tara and the woman who thought he was a landscape designer. Jack didn't understand why Tara didn't just speak up and tell Giles he was qualified to help. He said, "Look, I don't know what's happened here but I'm —"

"You're leaving," Mr. Giles said. "This is a private matter."

Jack didn't know if this guy was trying to protect his friends or he had his own reasons to keep things in the family. Either way, it was beginning to annoy him. While Mr. Giles was busy playing Papa Bear everyone's attention had been diverted to the argument. Jack noticed that the bleached blond had moved into the far corner with the girl and was now rocking back and forth.

Tara said, "Jack's a psychologist; maybe we should let him try to help."

Jack slipped into the gap in the human wall that Tara had left open and spoke without looking back. "While you're busy trying to keep things private, those two are in pain and retreating from the people who want to help them. I can't tell without getting a better look, but the girl might be catatonic."

"Let him try, honey," Anya said. "We don't have Willow to go in after her this time."

"Anya, what if he insists that Buffy…"

"Then we'll deal with it when it happens," Anya told Mr. Giles.

Jack ignored them and folded himself up as small as his height of six foot six would allow in front of the two people in the corner.. He was relieved to see the girl turn her face a little more into the man's leather coat. She wasn't catatonic, just withdrawn. He figured he was still more likely to be able to engage the man.

"Um, hi?" Way to prove you've earned that PhD, Jack, he thought. "Your name is Spike, right?" Spike looked him in the eyes then and Jack couldn't help noticing the guy was beautiful even as a complete wreck.

"It's what they call me." He seemed to be trying to pull together the toughness that would match better than vulnerability with his hair and clothes. It was telling that he wouldn't take his arms from around the girl to wipe the tears from his face.

"Do you think you could tell me what's happened here?"

"What the hell for? You're not going to understand a word of it anyway."

"But telling me could help you understand it," Jack said. He could hear the others leaving them alone but he didn't look to make sure.

"What're you; some poofy shrink?" Spike sniffed. "Never mind, I'll spill. You just nod now and then, yeah?" Jack nodded obediently and Spike continued.

"Had to dust Angelus, the one who helped to make me who I am. I didn't have a choice; he would've killed Buffy. She dropped her stake. Even if she hadn't, I would've tried to get there first so I could be the one to do it. She loves -- loved -- him and she'd had to do too many hard and terrible things— So I'm not sorry. It's not because I hated him. Though for the record, I did hate him. Lousy sod was never there for those that needed him!"

Jack said, "I see," breaking a promise to himself that he'd never say that unless it were100 percent true. Spike laughed bitterly and Jack wondered if he could read minds.

"Well, I bloody don't! I expected to lose Angel, it even makes sense that I couldn't really save Buffy. When have I ever done anything right? But where'd Dru go? She should be in the world somewhere and she's not. I did something wrong and now I'm cut off. Buffy's here, but when she's herself again she'll hate me for what I've done."

Jack looked at Buffy's fist. The knuckles were stark white against the black leather. It didn't look like hate to him. It looked like she was holding on for dear life. "What do you think you did that would make her hate you?"

"Dusted Angel, for one thing. Then kept Buffy from going back to her heavenly reward. Lots of stuff before that; just take your pick. I should spare her the trouble and spend the day at the beach tomorrow."

Jack didn't understand a word of this, but it looked like Buffy did because she chose then to rejoin the world with a mumbled 'no' that was repeated more loudly. "No!"

Spike asked, "No, what?"

Buffy pulled away from Spike and turned to face him. "No, everything. No, it wasn't your fault. I froze, Spike. I was 18 again and this time I didn't have it in me to slay him. Whatever 'it' was, though, I'm going to get it back. "

Buffy stiffened and spoke to Jack for the first time. "When I say 'slay' it doesn't mean what it sounds like."

"Hey, I don't see a body. I'm not making any assumptions. You can explain all this to me some other time if you want."

"Maybe not, I might be tired of explaining after tonight. It's usually Giles' job."

"I don't know why I fumbled the stake, Spike, but it wasn't because I wanted to die." Buffy turned back to Spike and she didn't see it, but Jack was beginning to smile. Buffy spoke like an oncoming freight train; every sentence was stronger and more certain. "So no, I don't hate you for saving me. And the biggest 'no' is no day at the beach. You aren't getting the easy way out. Nobody is."

"Why not?" Spike asked, sounding hopeful.

"Because I don't want to lose y… anyone else, and you're wrong; the family on the other side of that door belongs to you, too."

Spike said, "Good enough. I suppose we'd better get back to them. I can hear Stephen asking for us both." They helped each other to stand, moving like a stiff old couple. Jack could tell they were usually more graceful than that.

When they opened the door into the shop, the boy practically flew to Buffy and Spike, then Dawn anxiously hugged them both. The others took turns greeting them a little more sedately, but with real affection and concern. Jack was pleased with all the obvious support they had. Tara said a quiet thank you to Jack before taking a turn to hug a startled looking Spike.

Ian was sitting on a stair. Jack went over to him ."You okay?" Ian asked.

Jack said, "I still feel like I've been dumped into a season of the X-Files. You know, the one that didn't make sense even if you saw all the other episodes."

"Me too. How're they doing?" Ian asked, looking toward the group.

"Better than I thought they'd be. I was pretty sure at first that Buffy would need a hospital stay. If it weren't for the X-Files element I'd say she still does."

"Good thing you butted in then," Ian said.

"I don't know if I did anything Mr. Giles there wouldn't have thought of. All I did was listen. I didn't wave a magic wand and make all their problems go away; whatever's hurting them still hurts."

"Tara and the girls told me some stuff while you were in there. I don't think even magic works like magic, Jack."


End file.
